I wanna get a Turkey!

[hunna771]

Yeah, i know there's still like 70 days or so until turkey season and i've only hunted one turkey season, but i'm already excited. I hunted the last week or so of turkey last year. The first time i ever went was with a friend of my dad's and i saw 1 hen and 2 toms and i was hooked right when i heard my first tom gobble. We didn't get anything, but after that one hunt i went out and spent about 60 bucks on decoys and calls, and hunted with my longbow for the rest of the season with no results.

After a long summer, fall, and winter of playing with my calls and annoying my parents, i can cluck and yelp pretty good with my mouth calls, and some stuff on the slate. I have already gotten permission at several different places for the spring turkey season. I went outback this evening, and found some tracks. Turkey tracks. I was so excited. i just need to keep the turkeys coming through there now...:smiley_bril:

I plan on hopefully filming a friend shooting a gobbler or getting one myself. I'm probably going to be using my recurve so there's gonna be a lot of practice sessions going on in the next few weeks, and as a bonus, turkey season opens on my birthdayickle: This could be another new one of my obsessions:smiley_clap: So if anyone has some tips for a beginner, please, let me know. Thanks guys :smiley_coolpeace:

 

[bowhunter1023]

I can tell you the best advice I have received came from Joe and I honestly believe it is what helped me kill my first long beard this fall. "Make him talk because he wants you to talk, not because you are talking..." In other words, let him tell you when to call and not visa versa. When my gobbler lit up this spring, I let him know I was there and then went silent. I waited for him to make the next move and when he lit up again, I let him know I was still there and went quiet again. Almost 10 minutes went by between either of us saying a word, but he knew I was there and knew he wanted to check things out. Once I made a visual on him, a few short yelps and he was in my lap within a few minutes. I believe I've called TOO much in the past and it has hurt me as a result. When it comes to turkey hunting, less is more from what I can tell...

 

[xbowguy]

Thank You Jesse and Joe! You just co-signed something I have been feeling is wrong with my Turkey Hunting.

 

[rgecko23]

I agree with jesse on this one, yelping your brains out will only hurt the situation. Hunter, the best person in my opinion to ask about turkey hunting is denny. I will tryo get him to post up on here his thoughts about it. Hes really good at killin thunder chickens.

 

[aholdren]

Jesse has a great point. The first thing you have to do is get them located, then if you find the right one that wants to die that day it won't matter what you throw at him he will walk right into your lap, but you have to put your time in and eventually you will find the one that wants to die that day, and for godsakes don't get caught moving!!!!!

 

[Mike]

Yelp, I think I was over calling last season.

 

[dante322]

Take an assortment of calls with you. You never know what he wants to hear. The Tom i shot last year listened to slates, mouth calls, push pull calls.... you name it. He didnt make a peep until i hit that box call, just once is all it took. Then I followed the advice above. Once he hammered I went silent and waited for him to shout again. the second time he sounded off he had closed the distance by half. A couple clucks and purrs to let him now where to go and he came in on a rope. Dont call to make him gobble, make him gobble to get you to call.



Oh, and dont move. If you are bowhunting you might want to consider a blind. With a gun you can sit with the gun on a rest of some kind and wait for him to work to you. With a bow, you might have to sit at full draw for quite a while before he comes in. A blind would help to hide your movement.

 

[Carpn]

Turkeys are really predictable until they start getting busted up by other hunters. If you can scout and watch what they are doing then setup where they wanna be and no one messes you up they are pretty easy to kill. Like the others said, its really easy to overcall. There are times you wanna hit em hard tho and you'll learn that with experience . I personally don't like setting up in a stationary position and waiting on birds but it is pretty effective if you've done your scouting and are in a spot birds like to be. If you run and gun take your time and get in front of the bird before calling to them. Its pretty hard to call birds back once they've been thru a area. Also, when setting up try to get as close to the bird before calling to em. The closer you can get the more likely they are to work in. Use the terrain and available cover to slip in. One thing I like to carry that alot of people don't think about is pruners. They are pretty handy for trimming small branches and briars when u sit down at the base of a tree. Its quiter and quicker than just breaking em.

 

[jagermeister]

Turkeys are really predictable until they start getting busted up by other hunters. If you can scout and watch what they are doing then setup where they wanna be and no one messes you up they are pretty easy to kill. Like the others said, its really easy to overcall. There are times you wanna hit em hard tho and you'll learn that with experience . I personally don't like setting up in a stationary position and waiting on birds but it is pretty effective if you've done your scouting and are in a spot birds like to be. If you run and gun take your time and get in front of the bird before calling to them. Its pretty hard to call birds back once they've been thru a area. Also, when setting up try to get as close to the bird before calling to em. The closer you can get the more likely they are to work in. Use the terrain and available cover to slip in. One thing I like to carry that alot of people don't think about is pruners. They are pretty handy for trimming small branches and briars when u sit down at the base of a tree. Its quiter and quicker than just breaking em.

It seems like no matter how much shit I buy for hunting or fishing, there's always something little that I know I need, yet I always seem to forget to buy it. I've been telling myself for three years now to get a pair of pruners.... You think I have a pair of pruners right now? Shit no. lmao I need to get some.

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

Pssst JBrown: http://www.wingsupply.com/hunting-a...ls/gerber-fiskars-8-power-shears-with-sheath/ Been there done that, only I bought my folding saw only now can't find it. Pretty sure the damn thing is either at someone's house, in their truck, or out in the woods...

---

Hunna, the best advice that I can give you is to hang up your long bow, grab the nearest 12 gauge, find some turkey shot that makes your shoulder hurt every time you pull the trigger, and blow the head off of a bird. With an species, once you kill your first one, it's a hell of a lot easier to kill the next one! That said, can't wait til you best 85% of us on this site and kill one with you bow and 98% when you do it with your longbow! That's a mighty big challenge.

Other than that, I don't know what your experience level is, or what others might be, so here are some basics...

Calls have been mentioned. There are some mornings where I use one call or another, and some where I call too much. Avoid calling too much. If your calls don't sound perfect, don't cut yourself off - remember that rythem and pattern are just as important as quality. I've heard some birds that are "picture perfect" and others that sound like they smoke a pack of Pall Malls on the roost before they fly down.

Scout, scout, scout. I firmly believe that the most consistent turkey killers are the ones that have the birds nailed down and patterned. Getting into the woods early in the season helps you pick your spots (always a tree wider than your shoulders, preferably uphill from the birds and never with water between you and them) so that you don't bumble around come opening morning. I've got one spot where I know every morning I go out, I will hear the birds on the roost. I also know that they will fly down and come towards me (rare) or away from me. If they do that, it won't be until 10 o'clock til they come back. But at least I know where they roost - often times the big and old trees. A bird that gobbles off the roost is a helluva lot easier to kill than a bird that comes into a field sometimes.

Decoys - I don't know what you have, but I use two hens and a jake. I've hunted over full-spread toms, multiple jakes and hens, etc. I think you can overkill but they do help bring the birds in. Also, they are great ways to pace your distances. If you know that your decoy is at 20 yards, you won't have to fumble with a rangefinder or second guess when they come in.

Camo - Full camo, including a head net. Turkeys have exceptional vision, good hearing, and poor scent. If you can see a turkey, don't move. This is simple but hard to do. They are very easy to flush and it's the most frustrating thing in the world when you call a bird in and then flinch and they're gone...

Don't give up. Killing a turkey takes persistence and sometimes a couple mornings. Ask Dante! I walked into the woods, met him, and he said he had just seen a bird in a field that went the other way, but didn't flush. I said, Dave, would you like to hunt that bird?!? We set up and with half an hour had the bird at 50 yards. We didn't kill the bird that day, but he did a few days later. My first turkey that I killed, I set up with a guy, missed a huge tom, set up again, moved woods, set up, left - saw the birds in the field, tore back down the lane, set up, boom! Killed my first turkey....

It's a freaking rush. More than gun hunting for a deer, but probably less than bow hunting. It's a heck of a good time! Enjoy yourself...

 

[rgecko23]

Decoys - I don't know what you have, but I use two hens and a jake. I've hunted over full-spread toms, multiple jakes and hens, etc. I think you can overkill but they do help bring the birds in. Also, they are great ways to pace your distances. If you know that your decoy is at 20 yards, you won't have to fumble with a rangefinder or second guess when they come in.

Camo - Full camo, including a head net. Turkeys have exceptional vision, good hearing, and poor scent. If you can see a turkey, don't move. This is simple but hard to do. They are very easy to flush and it's the most frustrating thing in the world when you call a bird in and then flinch and they're gone...

Don't be afraid to change it up either....Last year we had some toms avoid our set up by 10yds, they were calling right back to us and throwin a fit, they would not come in though, I jumped out of the blind as soon as they were out of view, pulled that tom decoy back in the blind, 10 min. later..Here they come right up to us.

 

[Big H]

Best call you can make when the tom can hear you (other than shutting up), is to reach down and scratch leaves like a hen scratching. Turkeys typically scratch, scratch, scratch PAUSE..... scratch. I combine that with a very low volume purr with a mouth call.